Pole vault record holder Isinbayeva retires from competing

You are here

Share

Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia's pole vault world record holder, waves as she leaves a news conference at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Isinbayeva announced her retirement from competition during the conference. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia's pole vault world record holder, accepts flowers from a man during a news conference at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Isinbayeva announced her retirement from competition during the conference. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia's pole vault world record holder, reacts as she listens to a translation of a question during a news conference at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Isinbayeva announced her retirement from competition during the conference. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia's pole vault world record holder, leaves a news conference at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, Aug. 19, 2016. Isinbayeva announced her retirement from competition during the conference. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

FILE - In this July 28, 2016 file photo, Russia's pole vaulter and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva holds a bouquet of flowers as she attends an opening ceremony of the Russian Stars 2016 track and field competitions in Moscow, Russia. Isinbayeva has been elected as an athletes' representative on the IOC. Isinbayeva was one of four candidates elected to the International Olympic Committee's athletes' commission. She and 66 other Russian track and field athletes were barred from the Rio Games by the IAAF following allegations of state-sponsored doping in Russia. She appealed but failed to overturn the ruling. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Yelena Isinbayeva walked away from competing but not from her sport on Friday.

The women's pole vault world record holder announced her retirement as she focuses on a new career in sports politics and considers an offer to lead Russian track and field.

Isinbayeva was prevented from seeking a third Olympic title in Rio de Janeiro after the IAAF banned all but one Russian track and field athlete from the games over their country's state-sponsored doping scandal.

She still traveled to Rio to campaign in the election for the athletes' representative on the International Olympic Committee. A day after being among the four winning candidates, the 34-year-old Isinbayeva decided she doesn't want to compete anymore.

"Today in Rio on August 19 2016, Yelena Isinbayeva is finishing her professional career," she said close to the end of a 50-minute news conference.

"Yesterday's election to the IOC commission inspired me," Isinbayeva added through a translator. "It means I am not saying goodbye to the sport. I say goodbye to the pole, to my medals ... I fulfilled my dreams."

And without doping, she maintains.

"I have proved it again and again," she said. "All my tests were negative."

One of her priorities now is campaigning for Russia's IAAF suspension to be lifted so fellow clean athletes can resume their professional careers. Isinbayeva could be taking on that mission as the top administrator in Russian athletics.

"I have received an offer to head up the federation," Isinbayeva said. "It is an interesting offer but it is also a serious challenge.

"When I get back from the Olympics I will meet the president of the federation. We will talk about my future role. I find it very interesting ... I think I can bring the federation back into the IAAF fold."

Isinbayeva remains aggrieved about the IAAF's treatment of Russia. She said it "speaks volumes about the IAAF" leadership that they didn't congratulate her for being one of four successful candidates in the IOC athletes' commission election.

"I am a bit offended," she said. "We are the same team ... but for some reason I didn't receive any congratulations."

Although Isinbayeva said she forgives IAAF President Sebastian Coe for the "injustice" of banning Russia, she said: "Let it be on their conscience. God will be their judge."

Isinbayeva also railed against the "unfair" investigations by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which has published reports in the last year by investigators Dick Pound and Richard McLaren.

"All of the accusations that have leveled have been built upon assumptions, there are no facts, no proof but for some reason (McLaren's) assumptions were sufficient to raise the question of banning the entire Russian team (from the Olympics)," Isinbayeva said. "I would like to see more facts, more specific proof against specific athletes."

She urged sports administrators to be "dignified" in developing sport rather than fostering "some useful war."

Isinbayeva won gold medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing Games. She took bronze four years ago in London and will be elsewhere in Rio rather than watching the women's Olympic pole vault final on Friday night.

"When you compete without Isinbayeva this isn't going to be a fully-fledged gold medal," she said

WASHINGTON (AP) — Relatives of Jesse Owens and America's 17 other black athletes from the 1936 Olympics were welcomed to the White House on Thursday by President Barack Obama for the acknowledgement they didn't receive along with their white counterparts 80 years ago.

Along with the relatives of the 1936 African-American Olympians, gloved-fist protesters Tommie Smith and John Carlos and members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic and Paralympic teams met the president and first lady Michelle Obama. Obama congratulated the Rio athletes, thanked Smith and Carlos for waking up Americans in 1968 and praised 1936 Olympians who made a statement in front of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.

TOKYO (AP) — An expert panel set up by Tokyo's newly elected governor says the price tag of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could exceed $30 billion unless drastic cost-cutting measures are taken. That's more than a four-fold increase from the initial estimate at the time Tokyo was awarded the games in 2013.